The final books in the series aren't quite as good, but Fall is amazing.
I'll suggest The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin. Fantastic world-building, and a distinctive style from many other writers.
The final books in the series aren't quite as good, but Fall is amazing.
For some reason I never got around to reading Hyperion when it came out (in the late 80s?), although I was all over Bear, Benford, Brin, Card.getthatmarshmallow wrote: ↑Fri Oct 11, 2019 11:30 amThe final books in the series aren't quite as good, but Fall is amazing.
I'll suggest The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin. Fantastic world-building, and a distinctive style from many other writers.
The first and second make a complete unit. The third and fourth do, too, and they're not bad, but they are weaker in the manner of many sequels. The series is essentially two duologies (?) in the same universe. The first book is still one of my favorite sci-fi books (I don't know when it came out by I read it in the late 90s in college.)rj342 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 11, 2019 12:01 pmFor some reason I never got around to reading Hyperion when it came out (in the late 80s?), although I was all over Bear, Benford, Brin, Card.getthatmarshmallow wrote: ↑Fri Oct 11, 2019 11:30 amThe final books in the series aren't quite as good, but Fall is amazing.
I'll suggest The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin. Fantastic world-building, and a distinctive style from many other writers.
Other day it was on sale for Kindle for $1.99 so I grabbed it. Regarding 3rd and 4th books falling off in quality, is there a reasonable stopping point short of finishing all?
Thanks, good to know that #2 is a good stopping point.getthatmarshmallow wrote: ↑Fri Oct 11, 2019 2:52 pmThe first and second make a complete unit. The third and fourth do, too, and they're not bad, but they are weaker in the manner of many sequels. The series is essentially two duologies (?) in the same universe. The first book is still one of my favorite sci-fi books (I don't know when it came out by I read it in the late 90s in college.)rj342 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 11, 2019 12:01 pmFor some reason I never got around to reading Hyperion when it came out (in the late 80s?), although I was all over Bear, Benford, Brin, Card.getthatmarshmallow wrote: ↑Fri Oct 11, 2019 11:30 amThe final books in the series aren't quite as good, but Fall is amazing.
I'll suggest The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin. Fantastic world-building, and a distinctive style from many other writers.
Other day it was on sale for Kindle for $1.99 so I grabbed it. Regarding 3rd and 4th books falling off in quality, is there a reasonable stopping point short of finishing all?
I would try the other 2. They are pretty different then the first. Different characters, different perspective. I would argue that this is her first SF work, not Handmaiden's tale. Unless you count the Blind Assassins tale within a tale.LadyGeek wrote: ↑Fri Dec 28, 2018 7:55 pm I'm reading this now and am about 70% through. While I would agree the writing is excellent, I don't think I will continue in this path.
The story is categorized as "adventure romance" and "speculative fiction", which is not for me. I was more interested in the dystopian setting than the character development. Worth a try, though.
You could stop after the second volume, but all four are worth your time. The story is focused differently in volumes 3 and 4, but still entertaining and informative.rj342 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 11, 2019 12:01 pmFor some reason I never got around to reading Hyperion when it came out (in the late 80s?), although I was all over Bear, Benford, Brin, Card.getthatmarshmallow wrote: ↑Fri Oct 11, 2019 11:30 amThe final books in the series aren't quite as good, but Fall is amazing.
I'll suggest The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin. Fantastic world-building, and a distinctive style from many other writers.
Other day it was on sale for Kindle for $1.99 so I grabbed it. Regarding 3rd and 4th books falling off in quality, is there a reasonable stopping point short of finishing all?
With deference to Hawking, who was WAY smarter than I am, and as much as I loved Star Trek and all those old 50s movies, I don't think we have to worry much about that.FreeAtLast wrote: ↑Thu Oct 31, 2019 9:44 pm
2) McDevitt portrays a future Earth arguing vociferously over what I call "The Hawking Warning", that is, should our civilization search out other possible lifeforms in our galaxy? Or should we hide from these potential thems because they may be much more scientifically advanced than us and hostile to us at the same time?
Thank you for the suggestion, as I just downloaded the Trilogy to my Kindle. I fully agree, that is a very distinction style. All three books in this series won a Hugo award and I can see why. I can't put it down and want to keep reading.getthatmarshmallow wrote: ↑Fri Oct 11, 2019 11:30 am ...I'll suggest The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin. Fantastic world-building, and a distinctive style from many other writers.
+1
I'm glad you enjoyed it! (I read it using the library so I can't speak to the lack of bundling.)LadyGeek wrote: ↑Sun Nov 24, 2019 10:07 pmThank you for the suggestion, as I just downloaded the Trilogy to my Kindle. I fully agree, that is a very distinction style. All three books in this series won a Hugo award and I can see why. I can't put it down and want to keep reading.getthatmarshmallow wrote: ↑Fri Oct 11, 2019 11:30 am ...I'll suggest The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin. Fantastic world-building, and a distinctive style from many other writers.
I'm all for female authors with strong female characters. Research shows she was influenced by Ursula K. LeGuin which I can see in her writing style.
FYI - The series is a bit pricey and there's no discount for purchasing the bundle.
I inhaled that one through my eyeballs in one breath.DanMahowny wrote: ↑Wed Jan 09, 2019 1:49 pmYes. Hit that one a year ago. Already read it a second time. Tremendous indeed.
Dark Matter, by Blake Crouch. I agree with the reviews - it's very engrossing and I can't put it down.
LOL, yes, great. I HIGHLY enjoyed Replay and Dark Matter, both of I which I got recommendations for from here. I am looking for books like these.Cycle wrote: ↑Tue Nov 26, 2019 10:14 pmI inhaled that one through my eyeballs in one breath.DanMahowny wrote: ↑Wed Jan 09, 2019 1:49 pmYes. Hit that one a year ago. Already read it a second time. Tremendous indeed.
If you like that one I recommend Everyone by Charles Soule. Crouch’s Recursion is also basically like a better version of Dark Matter.Cycle wrote: ↑Tue Nov 26, 2019 10:14 pmI inhaled that one through my eyeballs in one breath.DanMahowny wrote: ↑Wed Jan 09, 2019 1:49 pmYes. Hit that one a year ago. Already read it a second time. Tremendous indeed.
I just downloaded the first book via a new Kindle Unlimited subscription. The subscription is now 2 months free. So, 3-months for $9.99. I'm finding that many books mentioned in this thread are not in the Kindle Unlimited program.Alex Frakt wrote: ↑Sun Apr 26, 2020 3:03 am If you are looking for something light and fun, I highly recommend the Union Station series by E.M. Foner. Please don't let the dumb cover art dissuade you. They are "free" if you have a Kindle Unlimited subscription. I had let mine lapse, but just renewed on a 3-month for $9.99 deal.
Kindle Unlimited should be called Kindle Limited. It's mostly self-published stuff. I still think it's worth it at a marginal cost of $0 for a new book, but you do have to go into it with different expectations. There's certainly a lot of military sci-fi if that's your thing. One genre I like are the autobiographies from people with interesting jobs like tug boat captain or saturation diver. There are quite a few classics as well. At one point all of Vonnegut was included.LadyGeek wrote: ↑Tue May 05, 2020 12:57 pm ...I'm finding that many books mentioned in this thread are not in the Kindle Unlimited program.
The first book, Date Night on Union Station, is a fun read. Some of the reviews have compared it to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Not as good, but close enough. I would agree.
I guess I haven’t opened this thread in a while because I came across this comment and had to check the date.heartwood wrote: ↑Sun Jun 02, 2019 6:49 am Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. It won both the Hugo and the Nebula awards for best novel back in the '90s. Essentially a story set in a future Britain with time travel and in medieval Britain in plague times.
Well crafted, but overwritten in parts, especially early on over language communications. I almost stopped reading at one point but am glad I kept at it.
She has you positing on the horrors of the Black Death, but also the risk of a pandemic today. Just a hundred years ago 50 -100 million died of flu. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu
Martha Wells, Network Effect. Don't believe I actually just paid for an e-book for the second time in my life, but I wanted some new reading. Murderbot is still Murderbot so I got my plastic's worth.
I'm up to book 4, Spy Night on Union Station. The series is starting to get predictable and I've started looking for something different that's available on Kindle Unlimited.LadyGeek wrote: ↑Tue May 05, 2020 12:57 pmI just downloaded the first book via a new Kindle Unlimited subscription. The subscription is now 2 months free. So, 3-months for $9.99. I'm finding that many books mentioned in this thread are not in the Kindle Unlimited program.Alex Frakt wrote: ↑Sun Apr 26, 2020 3:03 am If you are looking for something light and fun, I highly recommend the Union Station series by E.M. Foner. Please don't let the dumb cover art dissuade you. They are "free" if you have a Kindle Unlimited subscription. I had let mine lapse, but just renewed on a 3-month for $9.99 deal.
The first book, Date Night on Union Station, is a fun read. Some of the reviews have compared it to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Not as good, but close enough. I would agree.
+1 For Fiasco ... definitely one of the books I still think about from time to time, and I read it more than ten years ago.
I couldn't find anything to read in Kindle Unlimited, so I purchased all 5 books in The Murderbot Diaries, by Martha Wells. I'm nearly done Book 1, All Systems Red. I agree with Dave55 and others. This book is a fun read. It's creative and keeps my interest.LadyGeek wrote: ↑Mon May 25, 2020 9:21 pm I'm up to book 4, Spy Night on Union Station. The series is starting to get predictable and I've started looking for something different that's available on Kindle Unlimited.
The murderbot series mentioned in the previous posts look interesting, but I'll need to pay for them. Maybe later.
I recommend the Privateer Tales, by Jamie McFarlane. All 18 books are available free with Kindle Unlimited. 18 books? Hang on, I've only read 17. Book 18 was published in January. I'll start that now.
Thank you for this... I think !! A great collection of classic SF&F. I've already downloaded a couple of obscure Robert E. Howard novellas that I haven't read (which is rare for me. I enjoyed his stuff so much as a kid that as a teenager I drove to his Texas hometown and his grave from Canada).FreeAtLast wrote: ↑Sun May 10, 2020 2:11 pm Once upon a time, there existed a Golden Age of Science Fiction where great authors published short stories and novellas in pulp fanzines such as Galaxy, IF, Orbit, Analog, and Astounding Stories. Thanks to Project Gutenberg, many of these classic tales are available to you for free. Go to manybooks.net and register with a email address and password. Then go to View Profile and click on Science Fiction. I then suggest you arrange all of the available titles by Author, instead of Popularity.
+1 Some of the "Weird Tales" covers are fantastic.FreeAtLast wrote: ↑Sun May 10, 2020 2:11 pm The other bonus to "manybooks" is that you are able to view the absolutely wonderful cover art of the fanzines I noted above. I would love to obtain some of these covers in poster size!
I just finished Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline. This is my idea of a "fun" read. If you know video games from the 1980's this book is for you. It was a trip down memory lane from a gamer's perspective.LadyGeek wrote: ↑Wed Jun 24, 2020 9:17 pm ...As for Kindle Unlimited, the 2 month subscription ends in a little over a week. I still couldn't find anything to read and went to cancel the subscription. Amazon countered with a free 1 month subscription extension. I took the offer, but still couldn't find anything worthwhile to read. Unless I trip across something, I'll cancel it next month.
...Mentioned in this thread and Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI (by quantAndHold), I downloaded Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline.
Me too. I just forked over full price for the Kindle edition of Network Effect. I read mostly free e-books in the Kindle Owner's Lending Library, Tor giveways, etc. It's extremely rare for me to pay for an e-book, and almost never more than a few dollars. But the four novellas in the Murderbot Diaries that were Tor freebies a few months ago were so good I just had to buy her new novel.
I was recommended Dark Matter. It's on my list to read next month. I heard the author isn't good with endings, but I'm going to read it since it comes up a lot in book club.LadyGeek wrote: ↑Sat Apr 25, 2020 4:08 pmDark Matter, by Blake Crouch. I agree with the reviews - it's very engrossing and I can't put it down.
For $11, I was hoping the book would be longer - I'm going through it too fast. However, it's good enough that the price doesn't bug me all that much.
Recursion will be next.
I finished the series and was not disappointed.LadyGeek wrote: ↑Fri Jul 03, 2020 6:44 pm ...I was in the mood for space opera. Linesman, by S. K. Dunstall. Book 1 of 3 in the Linesman series. I can't just read one book in a series, so I purchased all three. There's no bulk discount, but it will save me the downloads. So far, I like it. (Not available in Kindle Unlimited.)
It's OK, but it's no "Martian".